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Rivian Recalls Basically Every Vehicle It Has Ever Made
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
On Friday evening, Rivian Automotive announced a recall on nearly every single vehicle it has produced so far.
According to documentation filed with the Nation Transportation and Highway Safety Administration, “The fastener connecting the front upper control arm and steering knuckle may have been improperly tightened … A loose steering knuckle fastener could separate, causing a loss of vehicle control and increasing the risk of a crash.”
The recall affects 12,212 total vehicles spanning the R1S, R1T and delivery van platforms. In layman's terms, the car’s suspension system has a loose bolt that can make the ride harsher or even result in a loss of steering control for the driver.
While undoubtedly bad news for the EV hopeful, the company has stated that there have been no reported injuries due to the defect. The fix for the problem–essentially just tightening the bolt–also appears to be simple and relatively cheap for Rivian to execute.
For context, recalls are relatively commonplace in the automotive industry. Though it’s also worth mentioning that EV startups have been particularly susceptible to them due to the sheer quantity of new technology and engineering in each car. To that end, Toyota also recently had to pause production on its new EV, the bz4x, over safety concerns related to the wheels coming loose. The Chevy Bolt has also faced its share of recall issues.
Nonetheless, this is Rivian’s third recall since May of this year. The company has previously had issues with airbags and seat belt anchors that required maintenance. Whether these three issues represent a concerning pattern or just normal growing pains for a company that only delivered its first vehicle 13 months ago remains to be seen, but the latest recall has taken its toll on the company’s stock, which is down nearly 8.5% by early afternoon Monday.
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
Peacock TV Hopes It's Found the Right Business Model to Weather the Pandemic
04:10 AM | April 15, 2020
Bring on the bird puns! On Wednesday, Comcast subsidiary NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock, takes flight. Initially available to a subset of Comcast cable and broadband subscribers, Peacock will reportedly spread its wings across Comcast's footprint by the end of April before expanding on July 15 to other cable company customers and web and streaming platforms.
The new service will hatch with up to 15,000 hours' worth of content. Peacock's library will include a flock of NBC favorites like Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock and Law & Order: SVU; movies from Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Animation such as Jurassic Park, E.T. and Shrek; and news segments, talk shows, original series and content from Telemundo. Peacock will also offer a selection of live sports (once those migrate back), and in 2021 will have exclusive rights to The Office.
Pricing will be tiered. Comcast customers will have full access with ads for free, or ad-free for $5/month. The behemoth has already forged a deal with Cox, another communications company, to provide their customers preferential access to Peacock, and is reportedly negotiating terms with others. Non-Comcast customers will have three options: limited content feathered with advertisements will be free; double the content with ads for $5/month; or no ads for $10/month.
Peacock will find itself perched alongside feisty competition. Yet whereas most of its streaming market competitors have zigged toward offering subscription-based video on-demand (SVOD), Peacock's advertising-based (AVOD) platform represents a bit of a zag.
"One thing that helps Peacock stand out is that it will feature some content for free," said Ross Benes, analyst at eMarketer.
In such a crowded field (see below), Peacock's relatively strong content slate should help, too.
Select Streaming Services
*Most common plan
**Expected to launch in May 2020
The coronavirus complicates the picture. On one hand, demand for streaming is up. Comcast has touted a 50% year-on-year increase in video on-demand viewing among its cable customers in March.
But countertrends abound. With most filming halted due to physical distancing, Peacock had to push a "significant" number of its original show releases to 2021, per a company press briefing earlier this week. The absence of live sports has increased demand for some other forms of content, but it also weakens what would have been a competitive advantage for Peacock. The postponement of the Olympics hurts, too, as NBC can no longer use the event to goose subscribers nor promote the service on its other assets. And a weak economy threatens to squeeze disposable incomes and tighten advertising spend; Magna Global, a research firm, recently cut its 2020 U.S. ad sales forecast from 6.6% annual growth to a 2.8% decline.
Add it up, and it's no wonder Peacock executives wrote earlier this week that "we are viewing 2020 as a runway to 2021."
A Strategic Bird
That runway metaphor looks apt on a broader timescale, too. Several industry sources told dot.LA that Comcast's strategy is to use Peacock to hedge its business units.
"The overriding initial purpose of Peacock," said media analyst Bruce Leichtman, "is to add value for Comcast's 28.6 million (and growing) broadband subscribers."
Sources also told dot.LA that part of the strategy is to retain Pay-TV customers while also guiding a controlled move toward streaming.
Few companies have as much to lose from cord cutting as Comcast. According to analysts, the firm would be wise to accommodate this seemingly inevitable trend, while trying to limit the rate at which one of its cash cows is cannibalized.
Indeed, several of Peacock's features cater to an audience still attuned to the ways of pay-TV. That starts with offering them free access, which will nevertheless bring in streaming revenue from the ads. And, in contrast to customers who've grown used to ad-free offerings like Netflix, a cable TV audience will not likely find Peacock ads much of a deterrent to using the service. Yet perhaps neither will other potential customers, given that Peacock reportedly plans to limit ad loads to five minutes per hour, and experiment with new kinds of advertising, such as interactive ads, meant to be more user-friendly than the typical spot.
Analysts appear split as to whether ad-supported customers will bring in more revenue than subscribers paying a higher price.
"In general, programmatic advertising doesn't necessarily add a lot" of incremental value, said Brian Wieser of GroupM, an advertising firm, referring to Peacock's ability to target ads to viewers based on data.
But others have reported that Hulu's AVOD customers do in fact bring in more revenue than their ad-free counterparts, and insiders at NBCUniversal anticipate the same, per a source familiar with the matter. Also encouraging on this front is eMarketer's forecast from 2019 of 103% growth in streaming ad spending from 2019 to 2023.
Plus, flying alongside Comcast should help.
"Comcast already has all these relationships with advertisers, so that's a big advantage," one NBCUniversal employee told dot.LA.
Other potential differentiating features include the numerous Peacock "channels" that will carry pre-programmed linear content aligned under certain themes (such as Saturday Night Live, NBC News, and Unsolved Mysteries); the high volume of familiar shows and movies; and the automatic playing of content upon opening the service, much like turning on the tube.
Although Peacock has reportedly locked in several 18-month advertising commitments, analysts and investors doubtlessly await clues on company plans and expectations in the April 30th first-quarter earnings call. But it may be difficult to find them. Since Peacock is not its own company, its performance will not be broken out in financial reports. And, as with many streaming providers, the numerous subsidies that boost subscriber numbers mean not every figure can be taken at face value.
"Because Comcast subscribers will get it for free, pure subscription figures won't tell the entire story," said Benes. "The more pertinent behavior to look at is whether people are actually spending time watching it."
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Sam Blake covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA
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Sam Blake
Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake
https://twitter.com/hisamblake
samblake@dot.la
Lightspeed Partner Faraz Fatemi on the Future of Consumer and Community-Focused Startups
11:25 AM | July 13, 2022
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Lightspeed Partner Faraz Fatemi discusses a trend toward vertical-specific, authentic social platforms, as well as the shifting ecommerce and influencer economy.
As Lightspeed’s first L.A.-based partner, Fatemi focuses on four general areas of investment: consumer social, the creator economy, community-based commerce and interactive media.
Lightspeed invests from seed to pre-IPO, but Fatemi’s early-stage consumer team focuses on seed through Series B. Fatemi said he looks at what differentiates companies from their potential competitors when assessing investments.
In terms of consumer social, he sees several trends developing simultaneously, from livestream shopping to influencer commerce, peer-to-peer marketplaces and group buying, where consumers organize to reach the best deal on a product.
Fatemi said he’s particularly interested in social networks’ ability to cultivate a passionate community and a sense of authenticity for their users.
“I truly believe that the next generation of social platforms will have some elements of community ownership that reward things like engagement and development and contribution, frankly, to the platform,” he said. “So platforms will likely serve as a centralized store of content, and it'll start to build up social currency [and] credibility with an emphasis on digital identity as you're contributing to this community.”
Fatemi’s experience working at Clubhouse, a social app focused on audio, gave him insight into the importance of building a community and how to evaluate success. Viral momentum has its benefits, he said, but understanding what drives engagement can help social platforms find long-term success. Similarly, his time overseeing corporate development at Wave.tv taught him to focus on the psychology of the young users they were trying to serve. That led his team to pivot to creating sports highlights rather than longer-form content.
Fatemi credits his large Iranian family and—in particular—his mother, a psychologist, for influencing his approach to social media companies. Understanding what people do and why they do it, he said, can help platforms build audiences.
“What are folks looking to get out of it from a psychological perspective?” he asked. “If you can nail that psychological piece, I think that's what's going to allow you to build a really sticky community.”
Fatemi sees a parallel between his parents encouraging him to follow his own path and how he works with his portfolio companies. While founders focus on crafting their startup’s direction, he said a good partner or board member encourages their vision without being overly authoritative.
“At the end of the day, it is a founder’s business, right? [It] is their baby,” he said. “They should be the ones that are determining the direction the business is going in.”
dot.LA editorial intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.
Click the link above to hear the full episode, and subscribe to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Minnie Ingersoll
Minnie Ingersoll is a partner at TenOneTen and host of the LA Venture podcast. Prior to TenOneTen, Minnie was the COO and co-founder of $100M+ Shift.com, an online marketplace for used cars. Minnie started her career as an early product manager at Google. Minnie studied Computer Science at Stanford and has an MBA from HBS. She recently moved back to L.A. after 20+ years in the Bay Area and is excited to be a part of the growing tech ecosystem of Southern California. In her space time, Minnie surfs baby waves and raises baby people.
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